Came across this article whilst writing a document where some lines below blew my mind...
Infection prevention and control (IPC) policy was identified as a significant barrier to the use of electric fans and to a lesser extent, air conditioning units in ward settings by all clinical and the majority of non-clinical respondents: ‘Infection control is one of the overriding mantras everywhere’ (Clinician 1). Six respondents reported complete bans on electric fan usage in clinical areas ‘We were just told that due to infection control we weren’t allowed to use [electric fans] for patients’ (Clinician 4); ‘They wouldn’t allow fans because they said it was a health and safety risk’ (Clinician 3); ‘… a clinical alert came out regarding … the fans … and said that … they’re not to be used in clinical areas …. Because of infection control … and that came out just before the heatwave, you know, which made it quite difficult’ (Non-clinical 9). Others reported fans being used as expected, with inpatient areas prioritised: ‘I remember people … running around trying to get fans for the patients and the nurses sort of not having anything at the nurses’ station’ (Clinician 2). The difficulty of ensuring enough fans were available to provide sufficient cooling during heatwaves was cited: ‘We had fans …. So all that was kind of in place, there just wasn’t enough of it …. It’s impossible to test like how many fans does it take to cool down this ward when it gets to 34 degrees’ (Non-clinical 5).
Two EPRR managers stated that, due to financial and IPC constraints, the decision was made in their hospitals to annually dispose of electric fans and buy replacements to benefit patient care, if not the environment: ‘Is it better to cool down the infectious patients with the fan, you know, and then chuck it, the fan, afterwards if you can’t clean it, or let the poor man or woman just melt?’ (Non-clinical 5) and, ‘This is not great for the environment but it’s cheaper actually just to bin them and buy new fans’ (Non-clinical 1).
This is really frustrating and, in my opinion, a lazy approach to IPC. It's very easy just to say "throw it away" or "don't use it" rather than work out the actual risk (balanced against other risks) and decide how to mitigate it in the way that's least damaging to the planet. We came up with the attached guidance on fans during COVID, based on some advice that was published by NHS Estates at the time. I'm proud to say that I never even considered telling staff to throw them away!
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